On March 4, 1965, members of The Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at the University at Buffalo performed György Ligeti's Poème symphonique, 1962, as part of the Buffalo Festival of the Arts Today in the Albright-Knox Auditorium.
During this piece, 100 mechanical metronomes are wound and started together at various speeds, with the performance ending when all the metronomes have stopped ticking. The work arose from Ligeti’s brief involvement with the Fluxus movement. Poème symphonique is a critique of the hundreds of competing ideologies of the time and asks the listener to reflect on what constitutes art in a world of infinite artistic freedom.
Members of The Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at the University at Buffalo perform György Ligeti's Poème symphonique, 1962, as part of the Buffalo Festival of the Arts Today in the Albright-Knox Auditorium on March 4, 1965. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York. Photograph by Sherwin Greenberg.
The audience watches as members of The Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at the University at Buffalo perform György Ligeti's Poème symphonique, 1962, as part of the Buffalo Festival of the Arts Today in the Albright-Knox Auditorium on March 4, 1965. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York. Photograph by Sherwin Greenberg.
Join the Buffalo Chamber Players for a rare performance of Ligeti's Poème symphonique during M&T FIRST FRIDAYS @ THE GALLERY on November 2, 2018, at 2:30 pm and 6:30 pm.
